Open Letter to Will Smith

An open letter to the actor, rapper and father

Dear Will Smith,

Whatever the truth of your motives, claims and personal life, please know that your life is your own, and you own every moment of it. This week’s breach of your privacy disgusts me. Sex, according to my philosophy, can and ought to be the highest expression of romantic love between consenting adults. Nothing and no one can destroy true love. Nothing and no one can ruin your pursuit of it. Nothing and no one can destroy what matters.

Your personal life, including sex, is your private affair and business. In today’s coarsened culture, selling out in fits of rage, envy and nihilism has become the standard. This depravity has only spread faster and wider with proliferation of technology. It’s easy to tear people down in seconds. The Me, Too movement, Black Lives Matter and other groups and crusades for irrational causes demonstrate this new Groupthink power to ruin the individual’s life. There’s no reason why the smallness of irrationalism should inhibit yours.

I write this as someone who’s gay. I first became aware of your work in dance clubs. I don’t care for rap, though I appreciate some rapping. When you started making movies and became a successful actor, occasionally, I saw some of your work. I wrote articles evaluating your performances. I read (and heard rumors) about your personal life, including your reticence to perform a same-sex kiss for one of your early screen roles. As a Hollywood journalist, your personal life is irrelevant; I focus on reporting and judging the work. You’re a fine actor. Time and again, especially in Hancock, Concussion and Collateral Beauty, I’ve recognized and praised your work.

Certainly, ours is a culture in which the artist of ability—from Elvis, Marilyn and Whitney to Tom Sizemore, Robin Williams and, recently, Matthew Perry—struggles and, tragically, often succumbs to self-destruction. Your assault on Chris Rock at the Oscars was indefensible. Your supposed statement of apology was insincere and unconvincing. Your marriage and parenthood are your business. However charged with punishment the scroll, to paraphrase William Ernest Henley’s Invictus, you are a man—a black man, a fact which is particularly relevant to any serious discussion of prejudice, sexuality and gay sex—and you are the master of your life.

May you have at it, learn, and, if necessary, break and live free from poisonous people and persecution in pursuit of your happiness. May you choose to think about the life of businessman and father Chris Gardner, whom you portrayed in The Pursuit of Happyness, who broke away from the herd to triumph over defeatism and make the best of everything. Whatever your sexuality, your past and your mistakes, you can do this, too. You’ll be pre-judged, even harshly so, and you are able to rise and thrive.

Sincerely,

Scott Holleran